


Always Told Her

by DarchangelSkye



Category: Calvin & Hobbes
Genre: Arc Words, Community: zombi_fic_ation, Future Fic, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Non-Graphic Violence, Teenagers, Virus, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 21:30:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1832950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarchangelSkye/pseuds/DarchangelSkye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Living near to Calvin turns out to have left Susie prepared for *anything.* (Zombi-fic-ation 2014)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always Told Her

When Susie was six, she learned to stop leaving her dolls outside lest they ended up in another one of Calvin's crazy 'kidnapping' games. It just made sense.

 

Her mother always told her how careful she was.

 

***

 

When she was ten, she learned it was best to go ahead and do his part of the assignment as well every time they ended up in a group together and he'd eventually start goofing around by doodling comics in the book margins or blowing off study periods to 'play' with that stuffed tiger of his. Tempting as it was to just let him flunk, Susie knew she had too much of a soft spot for the doofus and was about the closest he could consider to a human friend.

 

Her mother always told her how thoughtful she was.

 

***

 

When she was thirteen, she learned to keep a stiff upper lip when Calvin and other doofy neighborhood boys (the tiger was still around, even if he- it- was faded to a pale yellow at this point and hitching a ride in Calvin's backpack) teased and name-called the way boys always seemed to do at that age, when girls were "at their slimiest peak" as she heard from the back of the bus once. It was no good at this point to show being upset and letting him win.

 

Her mother always told her what a mature, lovely young lady she was becoming.

 

***

 

When she was seventeen, she learned, along with the rest of the world, to not get too close to anyone else unless it was absolutely necessary.

 

The newest strain of superflu, all the reports called it. Nobody could agree on where it had come from, whether it had mutated from a previous virus or some unlucky sap had picked it up from overseas and spread it about. (Of course, every country was blaming each other for that one.) Whatever the case, people were continuously pale and continuously coughing to the point of exhaustion, and if you believed the flitters of social media, coughing excessive blood. At any rate, people were stockpiling food and medical supplies, and those who dared to venture outside mostly wore masks.

 

Susie didn't see a whole lot of Calvin during that period. If it had been any other situation she would've been relieved, but not with a neighborhood she'd known basically her whole life being sick. Every so often she'd look out her bedroom window to over the fence, expecting to see the ambulance that sometimes pulled up to the houses with darkened windows.

 

The windows that stayed dark afterwards.

 

One time she swore she saw the curtain over Calvin's room draw back for her to see the familiar blond mohawk and sullen blue eyes peeking out. There was no smile of utter joy of pulling off a prank, no anticipatory grin of planning mischief, just a tight, thin line.

 

She shuddered and drew the curtain closed again.

 

Her mother told her, in between her coughing fits and keeping a distance from the other end of the room, that Calvin knew how to take care of himself and that she shouldn't worry.

 

***

 

When Susie was eighteen, she learned maybe she had underestimated some things.

 

The ambulance had already come for her mother the day she collapsed to the kitchen floor with a disturbing crack, after the coughing had become so harsh she'd lost her balance. Even though she had so far been immune from the flu symptoms, Susie had not been allowed to accompany, "too high-risk" was all the EMTs kept saying.

 

"You just remember everything I've told you, Susie-sweetheart. You know I love you," was the last thing her mother was able to say before they forced the oxygen mask on her and the ambulance rolled away.

 

She remembered, and then some. The doors and windows stayed locked, appearances of tidiness were kept up, and vigilance was ever present. Just like in the good old days with Calvin, she had mused once. And when it came between suddenly pelted with water balloons and keeping this flu and looters going around at bay, she suddenly knew which one she'd prefer.

 

The news reports didn't change much. More people coming down with symptoms, more hospitals filling up, more of telling people who had stayed immune to keep anyone possibly showing signs at great distance.

 

Social media reports, on the other hand, changed a lot. They were brimming with wild stories that nobody was even bothering to find a cure for this disease and the people infected were turning into ravenous beasts. Despite supposed evidence of blurry photos, Susie had a hard time being fazed. It just sounded like something out of one of Calvin's stupid Halloween stories. Those things didn't really happen, right?

 

\---

 

Autumn was cold, especially at night. And Susie's mother always told her being cold would zap her immune system and leave her vulnerable to who knew what. (Looking out for the rest of her family before herself, that's she...was? Is?) Which was why she was wrapped in several layers on the living room sofa and nursing a mug of soup that thankfully hadn't expired yet.

 

She couldn't deny it; the loneliness could get to the point of driving her bug-nuts. No siblings, no father in sight for quite a few years now, mother in the hospital (yes, she had to be in the hospital, Susie kept telling herself), friends similarly barricaded and not wanting to risk venturing far, no pets. And it wasn't like being six years old and pretending to talk to Mr. Bun the way a goofy kid she knew in more peaceful times would converse with his tiger.

 

Maybe he knew something all along that she didn't.

 

_whamwhamwhamwhamwham_

 

What in the-?

 

"Susie! Susie!"

 

 _What in-?_ "Calvin?!" Blanket and mug were tossed aside with no thought to cleanliness as she dashed to the front door and yanked it open.

 

Calvin, who appeared to be weighed down by a backpack, fell over the threshold and scrambled panting to get in the house. "Susie- shut the door- quick-"

 

"Calvin, what are you talking abou-" Her confusion and annoyance were interrupted by an animalistic growling.

 

When Susie would later get her wits about her (much, much later), she would say the animal growl had come from something once human. But at the moment, even if this thing had been walking upright, its bone-white skin with various crimson slathers didn't make it look human at all.

 

_Ohgod-_

 

Calvin finished his scramble into the house and practically tripped behind the kitchen counter. "Susie, do something!"

 

"Wha-" No more time for thought, just quick action. Susie reached to her left where she knew the coat and umbrella tree was, hoping to grab something throwable-

 

One grunt of effort and a sickening crunch and splash later, she was panting just as hard as Calvin while the...thing...lay over the welcome mat with her lacrosse stick lodged right through...its...face.

 

Susie had never had a fear of drowning, hadn't experienced the rush of panic of being surrounded by an enormous wave of water when your mind and lungs have forgotten how to work so you're suffocating while your heart is beating as fast as it can.

 

But right now was pretty close.

 

"Don't touch it," Calvin said blankly from behind the counter. "Just shut the door."

 

Susie did so, locking it as well, and she heard the boy scramble back to standing upright.

 

Upon closer inspection, she could see redness on his cheeks, forehead, and eyes, and his skin marred with as many scratches as he'd typically gotten in a long-ago playground fight. The sullen look she'd seen in his eyes from the window that time was now a hollow but wild fear- this coming from the kid who had only feared cooties and exams.

 

"...Calvin?"

 

"It's that flu-" Calvin swallowed past an apparent lump in his throat and brushed a hand over the hair that had grown to falling in his eyes from who-knew-how long a period of being unkempt. "Something's in there making everybody rabid, I dunno..." Eyes downcast to the side as he trailed off.

 

Susie clutched to the counter and felt her heart go rapid again. He had to be kidding, right? He was always kidding about the serious things- "Calvin, that can't make any sense. Wouldn't everybody be getting sick, then?"

 

He only shook his head. "You've only seen older people being taken to the hospital. Something's gotten to them instead of us..." He bit his lower lip and laid his head on the counter, a shudder heaving his shoulders.

 

"Cal-" Well, she was close to passing out herself after that...thing. She stepped to Calvin to slide off his backpack and open it.

 

Sitting on top of what looked like a pile of bandages and food was Hobbes. His orange fur had lost much of its luster at this point, and Susie could see several thick stitches keeping his limbs in place.

 

Of course he'd want to make sure he took his best friend. She tucked the tiger under Calvin's arm where he automatically gripped it and sighed.

 

"I saw the ambulance go by your house," Calvin eventually said after lifting his head, exposing dull eyes again. "Didn't know if at least you'd still be alive, but I saw the light in the living room and just had to run somewhere-"

 

A shiver of dread tingled up Susie's spine and she felt the blood leave her face. She could have been a near-ringer (her mind couldn't say dead-ringer, just couldn't) for the creature on the doorstep. "Of course I'm still alive, Calvin. And Mom's-"

 

_Going to be okay. C'mon, Susie, say it. Somebody's coming up with a cure for this flu soon and these sick whatever-they-ares will be taken care of she'll be home and you'll hear her voice again and everything will be all right._

 

But he shook his head, and her tongue stayed dull and heavy in her mouth.

 

"Your mom won't stand a chance if my parents didn't."

 

Too cold. It wasn't just autumn.

 

"I'm really sorry, Susie. I know I've been a pain in the ass living next door to you all these years-" His voice caught and he ran a hand over his hair again- "but now we're in the same boat and Jesus Christ I'm scared and I don't know what to do-"

 

Susie looked to her curled fingers on the countertop. Her mother-

 

_your mom won't stand a chance if my parents didn't_

 

-has always told her she never needed to be scared of anything, that she was smart, that she knew how to handle what came her way, that she was going to do great things for people in her life...

 

Now had to be as good a time as any.

 

She ignored the tears sticking to her eyelashes and lifted her head.

 

"There's no way we can stay holed up if there's sick...anything running around out there. We'd have to find a safer spot-" Of course. "If people our age aren't being affected, there must be some that have banded together somewhere."

 

Calvin nodded numbly. "Yeah, but where would that be? There's been no word on the Internet or anything..."

 

"Then we got to find it."

 

\---

 

There wasn't any time to waste. While Calvin was instructed to clear out as much food that could travel from the kitchen through the door to the garage, Susie ran up to her room for what she had a deep, disturbed feeling would be the last time.

 

The car hadn't been touched since Mom was...taken away, and was still in running condition, but it only had so much room. Susie knew she had to pack lightly as possible. Radio, photo album, diary, money, notebook with charger, handful of clothes-

 

She turned her head to spot Mr. Bun lying on his side against the bedspread. Like Hobbes, most of his fur's fluffiness had been worn down with excessive hugging, and one ear was hanging on by sheer luck and clumsy stitches.

 

Mom had taught her how to sew.

 

She picked up the rabbit and held it to her chest, and tears she had ignored before dripped onto its head.

 

_You just remember everything I've told you, Susie-sweetheart. You know I love you._

 

"...I'm trying, Mom. I'm really trying."

 

She didn't know she'd been standing in spot for a while until Calvin knocked on the doorframe. "Huh?-"

 

His face was red in the _I've-been-caught_ way. Of course he'd seen Susie cry before- heck, a lot of times he was the cause of it- but this was one of the few moments it was a look of pure shame.

 

"Um, I moved the food out to the car. There's gas and maps and a first-aid kit in there already," he muttered and turned his head as if the wall was suddenly fascinating. "And some tools. For safety- you know."

 

Susie sniffed and nodded. It wasn't his fault, not this time. "Thanks, Calvin." She gently tucked Mr. Bun into the duffel bag and zipped it up when another thought occurred. "Your clothes. We should stop by your house-"

 

Another numb shake of the head. "Not a good idea, Sus. Trust me."

 

Even worse than she could imagine.

 

Despite not wanting to waste time before, Susie found the walk down the stairs to the garage slow and methodical. Turning off every light, unplugging every lamp and device, touching every photo or knick-knack on a wall and reliving flashes of memory. She'd been so excited moving here twelve years ago, everything was so big and beautiful and she couldn't think of wanting to live anywhere else.

 

How things changed.

 

Calvin locked the door behind them when they entered the garage, and she could see the house key disappear into his backpack. Probably his imagination working overtime that someday they'd be able to come back.

 

Some things didn't change.

 

They moved the bags into the trunk and backseat, and Calvin wordlessly fell into the passenger's seat, Hobbes staying on his lap as he buckled up.

 

"How clear were the streets?" she asked upon getting in.

 

Shrug. "Wasn't really thinking to look..."

 

Only one way to find out. Susie pressed the button to open the garage door, and it crept up with slow creaking from months of non-use. It was autumn all right; gray skies, bare trees, lawns messy and...dead.

 

Christ, how long had it been since she thought of that word?

 

She shook her head. Only time for action now. The dashboard and engine thankfully came to life, and carefully Susie stepped upon the gas pedal for the car to begin rolling forward.

 

The further she got out onto the road, the more she could how empty and desolate the neighborhood had become. So many windows were darkened, and when once there had been a joyful soundtrack of ringing bicycles, barking dogs, laughing children, gossiping neighbors, and portable radios, there now was silence. All the atmosphere needed was a thin layer of white fog to look unreal.

 

Dammit, everything was real.

 

The car slowly rolled past a house- the Thompson's?- and Calvin quickly said, "Don't look," but she glanced anyway. A shape too pale and human to be mistaken for a bag of leaves lay by a tree.

 

Couldn't ignore the shiver this time.

 

"Think we're just about the only ones left in this area," he continued as he pulled a map from the glove compartment and spread it over his lap with Hobbes acting as a paperweight. "So where do we head?"

 

"Start for the outskirts," Susie said after a moment of thought. "It's not as populated, so there's less a chance of anybody sick running around. Others might have gathered there."

 

"And if we pass any of those things?" Calvin rustled around in his backpack.

 

"Car's got a good bumper." How eerie to calmly talk about hitting once-people down, but the one still lying over the front steps with a face full of lacrosse stick changed things.

 

Nobody bothered turning on the car radio, so there was just crinkling for a moment as Calvin unwrapped something. Susie felt a nudge on her wrist, and she looked to see him extending half a granola bar.

 

She was wordless until she finished chewing. "You're right, Calvin." Swallow. "You have been a pain in the ass...but in a way, I'm glad you're here." Really, how much longer could she have stayed cooped up with how much everything had changed?

 

He nodded with his glance directed back to the map. "Yeah...I'm glad too."

 

A nod of silent understanding and camaraderie from Susie, and she turned her attention back to the road.

 

Her mother always told her what a good heart she had.


End file.
